Irmo Council Debate Buffer Size for New Park

The location of Irmo's new town park have some residents in the area concerned about privacy and safety. 

During a workshop and regular meeting Tuesday, Irmo Town Council members discussed features of the new park, and the size of the buffer between the park and residential properties. 

The new 14-acre park is located on Eastview Drive and reaches as far as Doncaster Drive. 

Some residents are concerned about visitors of the park trespassing on their backyards and invading their privacy, and asked council to consider a buffer size of a 100 feet from the property lines.

More specifically, residents were worried about the proximity of the proposed walking trails to their yards.

Angela and Shawn Peeples live in the area. They said council members needed to consider how the park was going to impact the residents.

"I think the park will be a good thing but on the other hand there are a lot of things that need to be discussed," Shawn Peeples said. 

They said they wanted to see a large enough buffer that would deter visitors of the park from entering their property. 

There have also been concerns about the budget for the park, noise levels and maintenance.

The park will be the home of the Okra Strut Festival once completed but will also be used for other events and recreational activities. 

During the workshop, council met with Morgan Grimball of Grimball-Cotterill & Associates to go over the park's features.

Grimball was hired as the design consultant for the park earlier this month. 

Grimball showed members a preliminary design of the park based on those features. 

Some buffer areas around the park differed in size. A natural buffer of trees or shrubs of up to 50 feet from residential property lines was suggested in the design. 

Council also raised questions about road access and a proposed pond. 

Mayor Hardy King also mentioned a resident's concern about water runoff.

Grimball will take council's suggestions and modify the design to bring back for their review at another meeting. 

Following the workshop, council held the regular meeting where they voted to approve a motion on the buffer size. 

Both councilman Harvey Hoots and King said the buffer size may not be a concrete number and could change.

Mayor Pro Tem Barry Walker Sr. proposed building a 6-foot tall fence on Doncaster Drive to address those residents concerns but some residents in the audience said they would rather have a natural buffer.

After some discussion, Hoots made a motion for a 30-foot buffer zone.

Hoots suggested starting with a buffer size of 30 feet until council was able to get a better idea from Grimball of where structures and walking trails would be located relative to the properties.

Councilwoman Kathy Condom attempted to amend the motion to a 50 foot buffer but the motion failed with Hoots, Walker and Paul Younginer voting against it. King voted in favor of increasing the size. 

Condom said the buffer size needed to be more than 30 feet.

Hoots, Walker and Younginer all voted in favor of Hoots original motion with Condom and King voting against it. 

Council members agreed to hold another meeting to discuss the park on Aug. 30 at 6 p.m. Should there be a scheduling conflict with Grimball, council also suggested meeting on Sept. 6. 

In other business, council approved the following:

• Second reading of amending the Irmo business license ordinance. The town is changing to a national business code. 
• A contract with Grimball-Cotterill & Associates for $26,000 for the first phase of the design/bid/build of the new park. 
• Road closings for the 2012 Okra Strut Festival.  

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Editor's note: This story has been updated.

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